Former Obama Advisor Admits It: Keeping Trump Off The Ballot Is A Risky Move For Democrats

 Even David Axelrod, top adviser to former President Barack Obama, has admitted that forcibly removing former President Donald Trump from primary ballots — which some states have already attempted to do, pending court rulings — could be a risky move for Democrats.

Axelrod told CNN on Friday that he had “very, very strong reservations” about states like Maine and Colorado — where officials have cited the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause and declared Trump “ineligible” to run for President in 2024 because of what happened on January 6th, 2021.

“I have very, very strong reservations about all of this. I do think it would rip the country apart if he were actually prevented from running because tens of millions of people want to vote for him,” Axelrod said.

As The New York Post reported, Axelrod argued that Trump had essentially set up his campaign to function as part of his legal defense — and Democrats who wanted him removed from the 2024 primary ballot were playing right into his hands.

“A lot of the motivation for [Trump’s] candidacy was as a legal defense strategy,” Axelrod explained, adding, “He wanted to set up a construct … which says that they’re coming after him because he’s running for president, and they’re trying to prevent him from being president.”

The problem, Axelrod added, was that every attack Democrats had brought against the former president so far appeared to have backfired: “We’ve run this experiment, he’s only gained since he started getting indicted.”

Brianne Pfannenstiel, chief political reporter at the Des Moines Register, backed up Axelrod’s assessment to former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on her Sunday morning MSNBC show.

“If he’s being attacked, Republicans in Iowa tend to gravitate even more closely to him… His support is only getting stronger here in Iowa,” she said.

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Ultimately, Axelrod argued that the best way to defeat Trump was not in removing him from the ballot but in beating him at the ballot box. “I think if you’re going to beat Donald Trump, you’re going to probably have to do it at the polls.”